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PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

1834-1858

AND A MEMOIR BY HIS WIFE

1858-1894

"Intellectual living is not so much an accomplishment as a state orcondition of the mind in which it seeks earnestly for the highest andpurest truth…. If we often blunder and fail for want of perfect wisdomand clear light, have we not the inward assurance that our aspirationhas not been all in vain, that it has brought us a little nearer to theSupreme Intellect whose effulgence draws us while it dazzles?"—TheIntellectual Life.

PREFACE.

About twelve years ago my husband told me that he had begun to write anAutobiography intended for publication, but not during his lifetime. Heworked upon it at intervals, as his literary engagements permitted, butI found after his sudden death that he had only been able to carry it asfar as his twenty-fourth year. Such a fragment seemed too brief forseparate publication, and I earnestly desired to supplement it by aMemoir, and thus to give to those who knew and loved his books a morecomplete understanding of his character and career. But though I longedfor this satisfaction and solace, the task seemed beyond my power,especially as it involved the difficulty of writing in a foreignlanguage. Considering, however, that the Autobiography was carried, asit happened, up to the date of our marriage, and that I could thereforerelate all the subsequent life from intimate knowledge, as no one elsecould, I was encouraged by many of Mr. Hamerton's admirers to make theattempt, and with the great and untiring help of his best friend, Mr.Seeley, I have been enabled to complete the Memoir—such as it is.

I offer my sincere thanks to Mr. Sidney Colvin and to his co-executor
for having allowed the insertion of Mr. R. L. Stevenson's letters; to
Mr. Barrett Browning for those of his father; to Sir George and Lady
Reid, Mr. Watts, Mr. Peter Graham, and Mr. Burlingame for their own.

I also beg Mr. A. H. Palmer to accept the expression of my gratitude forhis kind permission to use as a frontispiece to this book the finephotograph taken by him.

E. HAMERTON.

September, 1896.

CONTENTS.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

CHAPTER I.

My reasons for writing an Autobiography.—That a man knows the historyof his own life better than a biographer can know it.—Frankness andreserve.—The contemplation of death.

CHAPTER II.

1834.

My birthplace.—My father and mother.—Circumstances of theirmarriage.—Their short married life.—Birth of their child.—Death ofmy mother.—Her character and habits.—My father as a widower.—Dulnessof his life.—Its degradation.

CHAPTER III

1835-1841.

My childhood is passed at Barnley with my aunts.—My grandfather andgrandmother.—Estrangement between Gilbert Hamerton and his brother ofHellifield Peel.—Death of Gilbert Hamerton.—His taste for the Frenchlanguage.—His travels in Portugal, and the conduct of a steward duringhis absence.—His three sons.—Aristocratic tendencies of hisdaughters.—Beginning of my education.—Visits to my father....